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We used to live in a major metropolitan area. But have since moved about an hour away to be closer to my wife’s family. We bought a mobile home and our lot rent and all the utilities plus taxes are cheaper then what we rented. We sold our suv and bought a small hatchback car. We got rid of cable. We bought a Roku smart tv and use Locast, The Roku channel, YouTube, Tubi, Hoopla, and Kanopy. The last two are from our library.
We shop at Aldi. We only eat out on birthday’s and special occasions. We spend a lot of time at the library and at the park. Our son has special needs. So because of this he gets a free lunch at school. We also get internet at a decent price. We have visible wireless for our cell phones. We also hold to the four Christmas gift rule. When we go clothes shopping. We shop at Burlington coat factory in the next town over. We use family dollar and dollar general for our cleaning supplies, laundry, and toiletries.
Whether I’m trying to be frugal or not, when I think about buying something, I figure out how many hours I have to work to pay for it. I’m getting old, so going to work to pay for stuff everyday all day is getting old, too. LOL
Mine was more of a 'frugal mindset' - than a frugal lifestyle. In retirement, I am still aware of rapidly increasing prices in almost every area of life. But, instead of focusing on higher prices, We/I took several steps to overcome this mindset in retirement.
1) We maxed-out a pension and used term life insurance to offset a potential earlier demise.
2) We put our 401K/403B into a financial management program (and have averaged an un-touched 6-10-percent income over the past 11-years).
3) We put 90-percent of our bills on an an autopay (credit card) system that automatically pays all of our cc purchases monthly. (I track monthly purchases, but, don't fret over day-to-day expenses).
4) We bought an annuity to offset inflation -- and annuitized it at 10-years into retirement.
We currently use the 'extra income' to help with the grandkids college costs
5) We've taken numerous cruises, but otherwise live a non-extravagant lifestyle (We could probably spend more, but are currently quite satisfied and secure with our fixed income).
My (lifetime) frugal mindset still kicks-in occasionally, since I'm not micro-managing our bills and expenditures, I can typically confine it to single purchases ... and not alllow it to impact our entire lifestyle.
Everything compostable going on the pile now. Coffee grounds, cardboard, tea bags, shredded paper documents, etc. It's a total "freecycle", cuts down on waste, saves on garbage bags, free soil/fertilizer for your lawn/garden/flower planters/etc...
I am frugal in some areas and not in others. For instance I grocery shop at Winco which has the best prices. I have cable because even though expensive I get enough value from it.
Linux. Bicycling for shopping, recreation, and health, minus some unhealthy accidents. Entering a Metropark in a car costs $10 admission now. I ride past the toll gate for free.
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